Manuel’s practice is focused on business litigation, pharmaceutical and appellate matters.

He has a successful trial court practice, particularly in Texas state courts. In May 2006, he was part of a trial team that obtained a complete defense verdict in a highly-contested product liability suit alleging a defective hip implant. The case was tried in Houston.

Manuel has also had success in various appellate courts across the country. He helped convince the Fifth Circuit to reinstate the most significant portions of a unanimous jury verdict for theft of trade secrets in January 2006. In making its ruling, the Fifth Circuit not only overturned an unusual post-verdict summary judgment but also found an abuse of discretion in the district court’s decision to set aside the verdict. The decision fully vindicated the client’s trade secrets. Manuel argued the case to the Fifth Circuit.

In 2005, Manuel convinced the Beaumont Court of Appeals to decertify a Texas-wide consumer class action that the trial court had certified before SHB took over the representation. In 2003, he took the lead in drafting a successful mandamus petition to the Houston Court of Appeals to compel a large commercial dispute to arbitration. In 2001 and 2002, Manuel also successfully helped defend a summary judgment in the Tenth Circuit in a lawsuit over patent royalties from a widely-used pharmaceutical product.

Manuel also has significant arbitration experience. He was a member of the SHB defense team that obtained a complete defense victory in a $1 billion arbitration proceeding involving a dispute over the development of cancer drug candidates. In addition, some of Manuel’s significant appellate and non-appellate work has involved compelling disputes to arbitration.

Manuel is a member of the Defense Research Institute, the State Bar of Texas’ Appellate Section and the Houston Bar Association’s Appellate Section. He previously served as president of the Board of Directors of Community Family Centers, a non-profit agency providing services to indigent families in Houston’s East End.

While in law school, Manuel was essays editor of the Yale Law Journal.

Manuel López, Expert Witnesses and Reports, Advanced Civil Appellate Practice Course, State Bar of Texas (Sept. 7, 2007)

Mark A. Behrens & Manuel López, Unimpaired Asbestos Dockets: They Are Constitutional, 24 Rev. Litig. 253 (2005) View

Manuel is admitted to practice before the state courts of Texas, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Circuits, and the Supreme Court of the United States.

1992   J.D., Yale Law School

1989   A.B., Harvard College